A traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erb's palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. In many photos he carries a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer, holds his left hand with his right, or has his crippled arm on the hilt of a sword or holding a cane to give the effect of a useful limb posed at a dignified angle. His left arm was about 6 inches (15 centimetres) shorter than his right arm. Historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development.

Occupation

15 Jun 1888

Reign: 15 Jun 1888 to 9 Nov 1918
Formal abdication signed 28 Nov 1918

History

28 Jun 1914

Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Kaiser Wilhelm II and Germany were hosting the sailing event on the Bay of Kiel known as Kiel Woche (Kiel Week) with the British Navy as guests when news arrived of the assassination on 28 Jun 1914 of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este. Wilhelm II, grandson of Great Britain's Queen Victoria, had been a close friend of Franz Ferdinand, and he was deeply shocked by his murder. Kiel week was abandoned and the British Navy sailed home leaving with all parties wishing the other well. Wilhelm II offered to support Austria-Hungary in crushing the Black Hand, the secret organization that had plotted the killing, and even sanctioned the use of force by Austria against the perceived source of the movement - Serbia (often called 'the blank cheque'). The German and British Navy met again between 31 May 1916 and 1 Jun 1916 at the Battle of Jutland, with significant losses on both sides, the outcome was inconclusive.

Residence

29 Nov 1918

The Netherlands

After his formal abdication, Kaiser Wilhelm II crossed the border by train and went into exile in the Netherlands (which had remained neutral throughout the First World War)

History

19 Jan 1919

Weimar, Thuringia, Germany

In Germany The Council of the People's Deputies, a provisional government consisting of three delegates from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and three from the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), took over executive power and called for a National Assembly (Congress of Councils) on 16 to 21 Dec1918 to convene in Berlin. It decided for parliamentary elections to take place on 19 Jan 1919.

The National Assembly convened in the city of Weimar, giving the future Republic its unofficial name. The Weimar Constitution created a republic under a parliamentary system with the Reichstag elected by proportional representation. The democratic parties obtained 80% of the vote and Friedrich Ebert (born 4 Feb 1871 died 28 Feb 1925) its First President between 11 Febr 1919 and 28 Feb 1925.

In its 14 years the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and hostility from the victors of the First World War. It overcame many discriminatory regulations of the Treaty of Versailles, reformed the currency, unified taxes and its railways and represented a period of cultural innovation in Germany.

In 1920, the German Workers' Party became the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), nicknamed the Nazi Party, and would become a driving force in the collapse of the Weimar Republic. Adolf Hitler (born 20 Apr 1889 Austria died 30 Apr 1945 Berlin, Germany) was named Chairman of the party in July 1921 and in 1933 was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg (2nd President of Germany 12 May 1925 to 2 Aug 1934). Hitler rapidly established a totalitarian regime known as the Third Reich (successor to the Holy Roman Empire).

Part of the Nazi Gleichschaltung (totalitarian control over the individual, and tight coordination over all aspects of society and commerce), was to bring all Protestant churches into a single Reich Church (German: Reichskirche) with Ludwig Müller (23 Jun 1883 Gütersloh, Germany died 31 Jul 1945 Berlin, suicide) as the Reich's bishop (German: Reichsbischof). Plans to introduce the Aryan Paragraph (exclusion of Jewish rights) into the Church led to a schism and the founding of the competing Confessing Church, a situation that frustrated Hitler and led to the end of Müller's power.

Following consultation and advice of pastors and congregations of the Confessing Church (Protestant schism church in opposing efforts to Nazify the German Protestant church) its synod in Barmen (now part of Wuppertal) issued the Barmen Declaration, primarily authored by Karl Barth (b. 10 May 1886 Basel, Switzerland d. 10 Dec 1968 Basel, Switzerland), quoted by Pope Pius XII as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas (b. 1225 Aquino, Sicily d. 7 Mar 1274 Fossanova, Sicily - the Catholic Church's greatest theologian and philosopher)). The Barmen Declaration rejected the influence of Nazism on German Christianity, arguing that the Church's allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ should give it the impetus and resources to resist the influence of other 'lords' such as the German Führer, Adolf Hitler. Barth mailed this declaration to Hitler personally consequently losing his Professorship at the University of Bonn and returning to his native Switzerland.

Alfred Rosenberg (b. 12 Jan 1893 Revel, Estonia d. 16 Oct 1946 Nuremberg, Germany, executed by hanging) became an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. A well-known anti-Christian and pagan fanatic he was considered one of the main authors of key Nazi ideological creeds, including its racial theory, persecution of the Jews, Lebensraum (the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany).

History

Between 30 Jun 1934 and 2 Jul 1934

Germany

The Night of the Long Knives (Operation Hummingbird", commonly known in Germany as "Röhm-Putsch") was a Nazi purge orchestrated by Adolf Hitler to remove Ernst Julius Röhm (b. 28 Nov 1887 Munich, Germany d. 2 Jul 1934 Stadelheim Prison, Munich) an Imperial German army officer and later a Nazi leader, a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung (Storm Battalion; SA) and to eliminate other critics of Hitler's regime. At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been into the hundreds, and more than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested.